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1 LOVE LIFE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND 



JOSEPH RALPH 



A MESSAGE OF INTEREST 



THE LOVE LIFE OF THE 
UNCONSCIOUS MIND 

By 
JOSEPH RALPH 

Author of 

How to Pyscho- Analyze Yourself 



^ 



Published by the Author 
LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA 






Copyright 

by 

JOSEPH RALPH 

1921 



°fC 12 1921 



Press of 

Times-Mirror Printing &. Binding House 

Los Angeles, Calif. 

©CLA630768 



Ns 



PREFACE 

This booklet virtually constitutes a special chapter of 
How to Psycho- Analyze Yourself, and is in amplification of 
Chapter XVIII in that work entitled, The Psychology of 
Disturbing Dreams. 

Many inquiries have been received by the writer for fur- 
ther information as to the significance of certain factors in 
the recurring dream (i.e., the dream in which certain partic- 
ular features are repeatedly dreamed), and this brochure 
has been written in response thereto. 

Joseph Ralph 
3205 E. Fourth St. 
Long Beach, California. 



THE LOVE LIFE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND 



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Consciousness and the Unconscious 

OME time ago I endeavored to explain to a friend 
the principles that are connected with unconscious 
repressions, and the mental conflicts which result 
therefrom. 

I am afraid that I made rather a sorry failure of my 
efforts ; for after I had concluded my arguments my friend 
very gravely remarked: "Well, all that which you have 
said has been very interesting; but I hardly think that 
I am afflicted with any unconscious conflicts; anyway, if I 
am I don't know it." 

I suggested to my friend that his remark was somewhat 
analogous in effect to what would be the case, if, having 
been accused by his good wife of having talked in his sleep, 
he offered as evidence in defense the statement that he 
could not have done that with which he was charged, for the 
simple reason that he could not remember anything about 
the experience. 

Most people are ready to accept the principle that be- 
neath the horizon of consciousness there exist certain stra- 
tums of mental activity of which there can be no conscious 
apprehension ; but there is nevertheless a tendency to think 
that, somehow or other, a person ought to have some con- 
scious knowledge of these unconscious mental processes. 
There seems to be an inability to realize that by the term 
unconscious there is implied a state of mental activity and 
forms of psychical influences of the nature and trend of 
which the individual can have no realization whatever. 



Governing Psycho- Analytic Principles 
It is very necessary to apprehend the two following 
psycho-analytic principles if the governing influences of the 
human personality are to be understood : — 

(a) The motivating influences of the personality are 
unconscious. 

(b) Until ascertained by psycho-analysis, the individual 
cannot possess any conscious knowledge of the nature and 
trend of the unconscious mental activity that constitutes the 
governing factors of his own personality. 

As stated in Chapter XVIII of How to Psycho- Analyze 
Yourself, all recurring dreams reveal the fact that in the 
unconscious mental life of the dreamer there exist certain 
starved love yearnings. 

Eecurring dreams indicate that some particular wish or 
tendency (often of an infantile nature), persists in smol- 
dering in the unconscious mental depths. 

No small amount of the hostility that is encountered in 
life arises from misunderstanding ; and a great deal of the 
opposition which Freudian principles have encountered in 
some directions has been because the exact character of 
these principles has been misconstrued. 

At first glance a person may consider that he has some 
justification for reacting very strongly to the idea that a 
staid, prosaic, and extremely circumspect spinster (for 
example), might experience erotic strivings in her uncon- 
scious mental life, and which could be of such a strong and 
persistent character as to pronouncedly tinge her general 
temperamental disposition, and yet at the same time for her 
to be wholly ignorant of such conditions. 

The reader may furthermore be even more sceptical if 
advised that it is not necessary to go so far afield for such 
an illustration as the foregoing, and can find somewhat sim- 
ilar conditions (to some degree or other), in his or her own 

6 



unconscious mind by applying the psycho- analytic test 
thereto. 

Devolution of Primitive Instincts 

In Chapter X of How to Psycho -Analyze Yourself I 
described the causes of unconscious conflicts; and in 
Chapter XXIII I sketched in outline some of the difficulties 
which the child has to surmount in its struggle towards 
attaining cultural responsibility. The reader will therefore 
be prepared to realize the significance of that which I will 
now set forth. 

The evolution of a desirable personality implies the 
devolution of certain primitive instincts. Ethical require- 
ments demand that crude and primitive psychical elements 
shall be sublimated (refined) into higher channels of 
expression. 

Among other lessons which the child has to learn is that 
society cannot be best served when the individual directs 
his efforts toward purely selfish aims. He mnst (for 
example), become grounded in the first principle of altru- 
ism: a regard for the interest of others. He must learn 
(oftentimes by many painful experiences), that this world 
was not created for his special personal benefit ; and he has 
to realize that he cannot and must not do just as he may 
feel disposed. He has to remember, in fact, that he is only 
a unit in a vast and highly complicated commonwealth, in 
relation to which he has many personal obligations. 

Of all of the primitive impulses which the child has to 
bring under restraint the sexual is the most prominent, the 
most dominant, and the most insistent. 

This being the case it naturally follows that a greater 
psychical struggle hinges around the cultural harnessing 
of the sexual instinct in the individual's struggle towards 
a status of personal responsibility than is the case with any 
other primitive characteristic. 

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u X 



VJ 



The Ukge of Life 

The urge of life manifests itself as energy. No matter 
whether we consider the efforts that are put forth by the 
athlete, the strength that is evidenced by the manual 
laborer, the application of purpose that is exemplified by the 
attainments of the explorer, the intensive mental concentra- 
tion that is brought into requisition by the student or sci- 
entist, or the driving force that enables the business man of 
heavy responsibilities to accomplish his purposes : the sus- 
taining factor in all of such instances (the driving force), 
is one and the same, viz., psychic energy. 

It should be understood that the physical and psychical 
functions of the human mechanism are not motivated by 
different sets of vital processes, in which one vital process 
would relate to mental activity, another to physical endur- 
ance, another to the demands of nutrition, and another 
to the requirements of the purely sexual functions. There 
is only one form of energy involved in all of such instances. 

Cultural requirements demand that ideas which relate 
to the purely sex aspects of sexual activity shall not be per- 
mitted to be persistently visualized in the consciousness; 
and a loosening of restraint in this respect would lower the 
standard of mental altitude upon which the well-being of 
a highly evolved society»depends for its existence. Never- 
theless, ignorance in relation to this subject may have as 
harmful effects as any that are produced by positively 
wanton actions oftentimes. 

All concrete ideas are based upon certain memory 
associations, and which memories are revived in a more or 
less vivid manner whenever thoughts that relate to them 
are dwelt upon. The consequence of this principle is: if 
certain thoughts have a tendency to revive distasteful mem- 
ory associations, there will come into effect a strong incli- 
nation on the part of the individual to repress (banish) 
uch painful thoughts from the consciousness. 

8 



The Sexual Impulse is Moke Than a Meee Function 

It is a comparatively easy attainment to repress out of 
the consciousness all direct ideas that relate to the sexual 
impulse ; but there is only one means by which this impulse 
can be extinguished, and that is by actual somatic death. 
For this impulse is not a mere function ; it is a principle of 
life. Not only would human life be unable to persist 
without this principle, it could not exist. 

The difference between the primitive savage and a highly 
cultured individual can be expressed by the one word subli- 
mation; and the struggle of the child towards a desirable 
status of social responsibility consists in a persistent 
applying of sublimating efforts. 

The motivating factors in the psychic life of the savage 
and that of the cultured individual are one and the same. 
The crude elements in the psychical foundations of these 
two divergent types are identical in character. Those which 
exist in the latter instance are refinements of what occur 
in the former. 

In the savage the urge motivates along primitive levels ; 
it is unrefined, and flows unrestrictedly along lines of least 
psychical resistance. In the cultured unit this urge is 
raised to higher levels of expression. 

In the savage, the urge of life has only primitive aspira- 
tions ; it consequently finds its means of expression in chan- 
nels that are crude. In the highly evolved type of mankind 
this urge reaches satisfying outlets at higher cultural alti- 
tudes. 

Two Examples of Sublimation 

Florence Nightingale and Frances Willard may be cited 
as instances where the principles of sublimation were well 
illustrated. In both of these cases the life's urge reached 
out to high levels of expression; self was subordinated 
to the interest of others. In the application of their 

9 



respective purposes these two women directed the whole 
force of their respective psychic energies. 

Florence Nightingale and Frances Willard had high 
ideals. They therefore harnessed their psychic energy 
(their life's urge), to an attainment of their high purposes. 
They consequently sublimated their primitive impulses to 
the lofty altitude of altruistic endeavor. 

The energy that Florence Nightingale used in braving 
the horrors of Scrutari, and which Frances Willard utilized 
in the interest of social reform, was one and the same basic 
principle that is possessed by the savage, and which every 
other type of individual possesses in common. 

By reason of restricted memory associations some peo- 
ple have a difficulty in realizing that the actuating energy 
that exists behind the noble efforts of a Florence Nightin- 
gale or a Frances Willard is one and the same in general 
principle of which some anaemic souls would deny the 
existence in their own psychical constitutions; yet such is 
the actual case. 

The urge of life may find as many different levels of 
expression as there are individuals in existence; but, still, 
there is only one form of urge. 

If, because of narrow memory resources, a person is 
unable to think of the sexual instinct without there being 
developed in the consciousness some more or less vivid 
ideas relating to the purely sex functioning aspects of that 
instinct (and which is a tendency which the ultra prudish 
individual shares with the one who is irredeemably vulgar) , 
then so much the worse for the diseased mental attitudes of 
such people. 

To the unimaginative, a lump of coal tar is nothing but 
a black and unappealing viscous mass ; to the analytic chem- 
ist it is a world of infinite possibilities from which he is 
able to distill a range of substances of the most transcen- 
dent beauty and practical utility. A somewhat analogous set 

10 



of conditions exist in relation to possible concepts in relation 
to the sexual impulse, 

Eepression vs. Sublimation 

It is comparatively easy to free the consciousness of 
concrete sexual thoughts; in fact such an attainment as 
that is merely a natural concomitant to a healthy mental 
attitude. Let it be remembered, however, and f orevermore, 
that if mere efforts at repression are manifested, without 
any actual sublimation of the impulse being accomplished, 
then the individual in question will only have succeeded in 
accomplishing a make-believe condition of psychical hygiene. 

Difficulties cannot be disposed of by any such simple 
expediency as that of turning the mental back to them. If it 
were possible to accomplish a difficult purpose by any such 
simple method as that, then this world would not be a par- 
ticularly ennobling place in which to live ; for there would 
not exist any premium on individual effort. 

Sublimation of the sexual instinct does not imply that 
no thoughts of sex must ever occupy the consciousness ; for 
a total absence of all conscious ideas in that respect can 
quite strongly indicate the existence of conditions which 
have a serious pathologic significance. The governing fac- 
tor in such instances is that of their hygienic complexion. 

The first step toward sublimating the sexual impulse 
consists in adopting toward it a healthy mental attitude. 
It must be realized that, if instead of sublimation, this 
impulse is repressed, very serious psychical trouble is 
courted. 

The sexual instinct is a manifestation of kinetic energy; 
it is an urge that is continually striving for expression. If 
this urge is not designedly utilized, and in accordance with 
cultural requirements, it will strive for, and find an outlet 
along undesirable lines. 



11 



Vocabulary of the Unconscious Mind 

The test of sublimation attainments is to be found in 
the nature of the dream experiences of the individual. If 
there have been no repressions, and all thoughts in rela- 
tion to the sexual impulse have been healthily disposed of 
in the consciousness, there will be no dreams persistently 
revolving around erotic ideas. On the other hand : if, instead 
of a sublimation of this impulse, it has been crudely 
repressed (which is virtually a denial to one's self of the 
existence of any sex thoughts or sex feelings, or some other 
similar form of unhealthy mental attitude), then the true 
conditions will be revealed by the phenomena of recurring 
dreams. The unconscious mind will continually strive to 
express what the consciousness has repressed. 

As described in How to Psycho -Analyze Yourself, a 
dream is a disguised expression of a repressed wish; and 
in the recurring dream the unconscious mind persistently 
repeats some repressed yearning. 

In the conscious life we do not continually alter the sym- 
bols which we use as a medium for exchanging ideas ; for 
we have a more or less stereotyped means for expressing 
our thoughts. The written and spoken word symbols which 
we use today for the purpose of exchanging ideas we will 
probably utilize again tomorrow in case we desire to 
exchange the same ideas. It is by means of custom and 
usage such as this whereby a language becomes evolved. 

As is the case with intellectual thought symbols so it is 
with unconscious methods of expression. When the 
unconscious mental mechanism has gravitated to the utiliza- 
tion of a certain series of symbols for expressing its yearn- 
ings it will continue to use those same symbols every time 
those same yearnings come into activity. 

If, for example, the pictorialized idea of the individual 's 
climbing of stairs, or passing through a series of rooms, 
serves as a symbol by which some repressed wish or yearn- 

12 



ing can be expressed, then that set of ideas will always 
constitute the media whereby that particular wish or yearn- 
ing can be expressed in the recurring dream. 

In course of time, therefore, the unconscious mind of 
every person builds up a vocabulary by means of which it 
can express its disguised tendencies; and although this 
vocabulary will not be identical with all people, it will con- 
tain some characteristics which are common to the race. 
There exists, in fact, a certain range of hereditary uncon- 
scious mental symbols : a form of unconscious racial vocab- 
ulary. 

An Arabian nomad would never dream of missing a train 
nor of being whisked by an elevator to the upper floor of 
a tall office building. Nor would an American stock-broker 
be likely to dream of riding camel-back over a desert. Never- 
theless, both of such seemingly diverse types of dreams 
would possess common associative roots; so that if the 
Arab dreamed of his riding-camel having broken loose from 
camp and the American broker dreamed of losing the Twen- 
tieth Century Limited, they would virtually be expressing 
similar unconscious ideas. 

By means of the vast amount of evidence which has 
been gathered from many sources, by many patient inves- 
tigators, it is now known that certain ideas have special 
significance when they are featured in dreams; and by a 
decoding of the real meaning of many of these symbols by 
such investigators as Freud, Stekel and Kaplan, etc., a great 
deal has been accomplished in uncovering the strivings 
of the unconscious mind as expressed in dreams. 

A recurring dream is a persistent utilization of certain 
particular symbols on the part of the unconscious mind by 
which it expresses its yearnings ; and which persistent utili- 
zation of particular symbols takes place whenever the uncon- 
scious mind experiences certain recurring sensations. 



13 



Significance of the Eecukking Dkeam 

So-called goodness can, under certain conditions, consist 
of rank stupidity. On the other hand, mere negative good- 
ness is almost as deplorable as is positive badness. 

Failure to sublimate the crude sexual impulse does not 
wholly hinge on the status of the ethical aspirations of the 
personality ; it often results from a lack of sensible appre- 
hension of certain fundamental requirements. 

If the good St. Augustine had only possessed a little 
psycho-analytic knowledge he would never have felt him- 
self driven to supplicate God to hold him blameless for the 
nature of his dreams. 

Eecurring dreams indicate that there has been a failure 
to adjust the insistence of the sexual impulse in conformity 
with the best interest of the personality and of social 
requirements. They indicate that there has been an inability 
to either raise the quality of this impulse to higher sublima- 
tion levels on the one hand, or to healthily treat it in con- 
formity with the realities of life on the other. 

Eecurring dreams show that the sexual impulse has been 
repressed without having been satisfactorily sublimated. 
They are evidence that this principle of life's energy has 
neither been adequately utilized physically, nor refined to 
higher altitudes of expression. 

If a person has high ethical aspirations, he will realize 
that the purely physical aspects of the sexual impulse can- 
not be granted unlimited license. In order to comply with 
cultural demands, therefore, there is only one of two pos- 
sible courses of action that are open to the individual: he 
must either repress the insistence of this impulse or else 
sublimate it. 

Now to repress means an attempt to stifle; whereas to 
sublimate implies to utilize. There is therefore no option 
of conduct from which the ethical individual can choose 
and yet at the same time be psychically healthy. Sub- 
limation consequently becomes a cultural necessity. 

14 



Dee am Symbols 

The pictorialized ideas that serve as symbols of expres- 
sion in recurring dreams are of many types, of which the 
following are a few of the most common examples : 

The person dreams of ascending or descending stairs, 
going through passage-ways, halls, or a number of rooms, 
swimming, rowing, flying, gliding, swinging, riding horse- 
back, running, ascending in a balloon or airplane, falling 
over precipices, struggling to catch trains or other means 
of conveyance, or missing connections in these respects, 
registering on or off at hotels, viewing certain forms of 
buildings or other structural objects, carrying, handling, 
or in other ways treating such articles as hand-bags, trunks, 
umbrellas and walking sticks, etc., etc. 

With some people animals figure prominently in the 
recurring dream; some of which are fierce and menacing 
while others are benign. With many people snakes and 
other forms of lowly life figure prominently. 

The recurring dreams of some people revolve around 
the act of losing something or other, such as an article of 
jewelry or clothing. Some people persistently dream of 
losing teeth or undergo some other disagreeable sensation. 

In all such experiences the point of significance does 
not relate to the exact nature of the idea which is drama- 
tized in the dream, but lies in the fact that some particular 
idea persistently recurs. 

Every recurring dream has an erotic sigyiificance. 

The Sexual Motive Power 

A successful sublimation of the sexual impulse is gov- 
erned by two requirements : (a) the cultivation of a healthy 
mental attitude towards that impulse, and (b) a rightful 
harnessing of the energy connected with it in accordance 
with social demands. 

In Will Power While You Wait (Chapter XX, How to 

15 



Psycho- Analyze Yourself), I have shown the necessity of 
the individual's having an interest object; a failure to 
acquire which will seriously handicap all other efforts that 
may be made towards psychical adjustment. This interest 
object consequently becomes the channel in which the energy 
which constitutes the motive power of the sexual impulse 
can desirably and satisfyingly flow. 

If this available energy is not directed into desirable 
channels it will cut courses of its own; and which courses 
will not be in the best interest of the individual. 

This energy exists, and cannot be stifled. If it is not 
therefore used rightly it will most certainly spend itself 
harmfully, and in directions which will be psychically 
destructive. 

It is now known that it is this unharnessed energy of the 
sexual impulse which is the pathogenic factor in all neurotic 
disturbances and cases of so-called nervous breakdown. 
Ignored, unutilized, and oftentimes despised (considered 
to be something too "unclean" for some types of unhealthy 
minds to think about) , and consequently unsublimated, this 
insistent force of a fundamental principle of life carves out 
blind channels of release in the unconscious psychical 
mechanism and goes on the rampage. 

Every form of nervous ailment indicates that there exists 
in the unconscious mechanism of the sufferer a disturb- 
ance in the natural rhythm of the psycho-sexual impulse. 
Such nervous conditions betray, without exception, that 
there has been repression without sublimation. 

The Working Pressure of the Individual 

The energy which exists behind the sexual impulse is the 
motive power to all human achievements. It constitutes the 
working ability of the individual. It is to the personality 
what pressure per square inch is in physical mechanics. It 
is the boiler power behind all forms of mental and physi- 
ological effort. 

16 



This impulse is not a mere function; it is a principle of 
life. The purely sex attribute of this impulse is virtually 
the least significant of its avenues of utilization, and is 
merely an incident to broader considerations. 

With some people this motive power becomes released 
at low psychical levels ; whereas in the case of others it is 
raised (by sublimating efforts), to the most exalted peaks 
of expression. In all instances, however, the energy is one 
and the same in basic quality. 

Nature does not supply a particular form of psychical 
energy for the savage and another form for the altruist. 
The molecular gyration which exists in the blood corpuscle 
of a troglodyte is identical in character with that which 
exists in the case of a St. Francis of Assisi or of a Darwin. 
The principles of Nature are not patchy in their constitu- 
tion, but are universal. 

Our Best is on the Outside 

In the struggle toward a status of cultural responsi- 
bility the personality has to surmount many psychical 
obstacles; and few indeed are those who succeed in their 
efforts to a degree of perfection. 

Consequently : although the principles of Nature are not 
patchy in their constitution, an application of those prin- 
ciples can produce an infinite variety of effects. 

" As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. ' ' And accord- 
ing to the unconscious thoughts of the individual so will be 
the nature of the personality. 

Hitherto it has been complacently assumed that it is the 
worst part of the individual 's self which is on the outside. 
People have found it to be extremely comfortable to believe 
(or to try to believe), that the exterior part of the person- 
ality is the worst, and is merely a superficial layer to higher 
and more refined psychical characteristics existing within. 
Psycho-analysis, however, has proved that an altogether 

17 



opposite state of affairs is the case. It has demonstrated 
that it is the best, and consequently the most socialized 
attributes of the personality which exists on the outside; 
and that it is the worst, the primitive, the uncultured, and 
consequently the least socialized psychical tendencies which 
lie within. 

It is always the best side of the personality which is 
presented towards the world. In man's unconscious men- 
tal processes vestiges of the archaic survive. Beneath the 
veneer of civilization the savage in man still exists ; and in 
the daily actions we find these primitive tendencies con- 
tinually manifesting themselves. The farther we are 
removed from cultural restraint the more pronouncedly these 
strains become revealed. In our private lives we are there- 
fore always more primitive in our actions than when we are 
exposed to the social gaze; we are even more so in our 
thoughts ; while in the unconscious mental life the ancestral 
strains of the brute are latent factors which have always to 
be reckoned with. 

Sublimation is the only true hall mark to psychical 
wholesomeness ; and the greater the degree of smug respect- 
ability with which some individuals would seek to impress 
the world the greater the evidence that in such cases the 
sublimating processes have attained the least degree of 
desirable results. 

Smug respectability is an attempt, by conscious deport- 
ment, to compensate for an unconscious disreputableness. 

The concept that it is the worst which is without, and 
that it is the best which is within, is accountable for the 
long train of psychical miseries that are so profuse in the 
social life. It is this erroneous concept which is responsi- 
ble for having filled our asylums, and for having inflicted 
upon society a multitude of neurotics. 



18 



Penetrating the Disguise of the Recurring Dream 

No one who is really happy, and whose life's urge is 
strongly projected towards some desirable interest object, 
will continue to experience recurring dreams. 

When a recurring dream is split up into its elemental 
parts, the condensations and displacements disintegrated, 
and the free association method applied thereto (as fully 
described in Chapter X of How to Psycho -Analyze Your- 
self), the dreamer will soon find himself face to face with 
memories which he will be able to interpret in an entirely 
new light. 

In this analysis there must be no shrinking back from 
whatever ideas may spring forth into the consciousness ; for 
nothing will come up from the unconscious mental depths 
but what, at some time or other, under some condition or 
other, has been repressed down into it in an unsublimated 
form. 

Nothing will be created by this analyzing process ; there 
simply occurs a liberation of mental material which has 
existed for a long time, but of the quality of which the con- 
sciousness has persistently endeavored to deny. 

In this analytic work the individual will come face to 
face with some of the motivating factors of the real self, 
and will consequently be able to adjust some of the psychical 
inharmonies accordingly. 

The latent factors in the recurring dream represent 
traces of unsublimated psychical grime which have been 
accumulated by the personality in the struggle along the 
trail towards cultural responsibility : grime which has been 
covered over without having been psychically sterilized. 

When the disguise of the recurring dream has been pene- 
trated (and the unconscious meaning has been thereby 
revealed to the consciousness), the dream will cease to recur. 
There will be no more persistent dreams of climbing stairs, 
floating through space, or of some other seemingly innocent 

19 



sets of ideas being dramatized in the dream. The individ- 
ual will have peered into the recesses of his soul and will 
thereby have identified the nnsublimated sexual character- 
istics of the psychic life which have been buried there pos- 
sibly since the days of pre-adolescence. 

Make-Believe Pueity of Mind 

Eecurring dreams furnish indubitable evidence that 
the individual has endeavored to believe himself to be better 
than he really is ; they indicate that there has been an ignor- 
ing of the practical aspects of the principle expressed in 
the aphorism: As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. 

Sublimation of the sexual impulse implies a refining 
of the attributes of that quality. It means a raising of the 
pitch of expression of that principle from a low to a high 
psychical level. It does not mean a denial of the insistence 
of that impulse, but an application of its potential qualities 
to cultural achievements. 

If this energy is not designedly harnessed (and its 
inherent features thereby socialized), it will turn bolshevik 
in the unconscious psychic life ; it will run wild. 

It is a condition such as this which is responsible for 
many serious forms of mental, psychical, and physiological 
disturbances with which society is afflicted. 

When driven from the consciousness down into the 
unconscious mental life, this repressed energy acts like a 
swirling current against an unstable bank, and with destruc- 
tive effects. For a time this action proceeds unrecognized 
by the consciousness, but the undermining influences are 
none the less dangerous. 

Haenessing the Eneegy 

In order to harness this energy it must be hitched up to 
some strongly beckoning and constructive interest object, 
the nature of which must largely depend upon the govern- 
ing characteristics of the individual. 

20 



This interest object must be of a nature which will pro- 
vide intensity of attention and hopeful striving. As long as 
this interest object is of a socially desirable character its 
exact nature is immaterial. For that matter no two individ- 
uals will have similar inclinations in this respect. 

Each individual temperament must have his or her own 
particular interest object towards which there can be directed 
the kinetic energy that pertains to the sexual impulse. 

The poetic temperament sublimates by directing the 
urge into efforts to express the human emotions and pas- 
sions in pleasing symphony and song. The musician (with 
equal special adaptability), utilizes the principles of har- 
mony, melody and rhythm in interpreting the emotional striv- 
ings of the ego. The artist finds his particular sublimation 
avenue by translating the aesthetic in terms of gratifying 
physical renderings. The author strives to accomplish a 
similar purpose by directing his efforts at supplying the 
sum of some department of human knowledge for the edu- 
cation of others. The ascetic strives towards his sublima- 
tion goal by means of processes of rigid ritualistic observ- 
ances. The person who is possessed of a fierce realization 
of the unjust inequalities of various social conditions turns 
the full power of his or her urge into efforts at adjusting 
those conditions. The scientist, with his reasoning and 
inquiring mind, transforms the full brunt of his primitive 
energy into mental application. Other people, less construc- 
tively inclined, find substitute channels for their psychical 
energy in the prosecution of hobbies, indulgence in sports, 
and in the taking up of various studies. They all strive after 
the same goal, even if they follow different routes. 

So-Called Nervous Breakdown 

An attentive mind is a contented mind. On this prin- 
ciple hinges the outcome of the individual's efforts at sub- 
limation. 

21 



The first requisite towards attaining this goal is to have 
a desirable interest object. The person who is lacking in a 
strongly beckoning interest object is psychically moribund. 

The energy which is contained in the sexual impulse must 
be harnessed; and if this harnessing is not applied in a 
normal and constructive manner it will most certainly break 
out and go on the rampage in an abnormal and destructive 
manner. 

It is now known that the multitude of so-called nervous 
diseases with which modern society is afflicted are products 
of displaced sexual energy. In such cases the energy 
which, rightly applied, would constitute the constructive 
influence to great achievements, virtually becomes a 
destroying curse. Having been deprived of an adequate 
expression at levels of low psychical pitch, and not having 
been elevated to higher outlets, this crude insistent energy 
breaks out over its natural banks, flows over into the molec- 
ular constitution of the physiological processes and, by dis- 
rupting them, produces disorganization; and which disor- 
ganization is known as d i s e a s e. 

It may be hard to realize that the person suffering from 
a so-called nervous breakdown has, in reality, as much 
energy at his disposal as has an athlete or a forceful cap- 
tain of industry ; nevertheless such is the case. 

A so-called nervous breakdown is not a breaking down 
of energy resource, but is a breaking out of the unutilized 
aspects of that quality. Where this energy is under con- 
trol, and is constructively applied, it is the creative influ- 
ence in all human endeavor. But where it is beyond con- 
trol, and consequently exerts itself destructively, the result 
is disastrous. 

The Psychical "Drag" 

The recurring dream is a sure indication that the per- 
sonality is afflicted with a psychical "drag." It shows that 
there is lack of harmony in the unconscious love life ; and 

22 



there is consequently a lack of physical energy in the con- 
scious mental life. 

In order to attain to psychical freedom the individual 
must bring the unsublimated strivings of the repressed 
sexual impulse into alignment with the conscious endeavors. 
Until this is accomplished the personality is virtually split. 
The consciousness is pulling in one direction and the uncon- 
scious strivings are pulling in another. 

The nature of these unconscious psychical "drags" can 
be ascertained to a very material extent by decoding the 
symbolized expressions that are contained in the recurring 
dream. When this is achieved the consciousness appre- 
hends its unconscious weaknesses and is able to adjust the 
conscious mental attitude accordingly. 

The disguise of the recurring dream should be analyzed 
away, and its hidden meaning thereby laid bare to conscious 
recognition. When this is accomplished the hitherto existing 
split in the personality becomes annealed. 

A personality derives its strength by apprehending and 
adjusting its weaknesses. 

Nosce te ipsum. 

By these means the personality becomes released from 
its psychical "drags." 



23 



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HOW TO PSYCHO-ANALYZE YOURSELF 

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF 

REMOLDING THE PERSONALITY BY 

THE ANALYTIC METHOD 



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By 
JOSEPH RALPH 

HIS book has been written with the 
purpose of enabling people to apply 
the principles of psycho-analysis 
by self -efforts. 

The author is a practicing an- 
alyst; and the methods of instruc- 
tion set forth in this work are based 
upon the personal experience of the 
writer, both in relation to his own 
self and in consulting room prac- 
tice. 

This is not a text-book; it is a 
working manual of instructions. 
It is the first book that has been 
written by a practicing analyst in 
the interest of popular application. 



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